By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Cliff English has identified his greatest challenge as the coach of the Sun Devils fledgling women's triathlon team: He has forgotten how to sell himself.
English coached at the Canadian national training center in Victoria from 2002-05, and from 2005 to 2008, he coached the USA National Team.
He has coached a star-studded cast of triathletes including four-time U.S. Olympian Hunter Kemper, Leanda Cave, Sarah Haskins, Heather Jackson and T.J. Tollakson. He coached World Championship medalists Samantha McGlone and Tim O'Donnell, and he has coached athletes in four-straight Olympiads including Australian Ashleigh Gentle, who is currently working with English in Tempe before she heads off to Rio in August.
The problem?
"I've never gone up to an athlete after a race and said 'how would you like to come work with me?'" English said. "They typically come to me. I guess it's just reputation, but I haven't put out an ad in a long time."
While English worries that this lack of self-promotion will impact him on the college recruiting trail, Gentle laughs at the idea that English needs to peddle himself to anyone.
"He has so much experience in triathlon in general, but the experience he has is very broad," she said. "Everyone knows who he is so that experience can only be a really positive thing for the program."
Gentle called English about two years ago, after parting with her former coach. She wasn't seeing the consistency she wanted in her competitions, and she wasn't seeing enough improvement.
Despite the fact that she lives on Australia's Gold Coast and only sees English one or two times a year, she said the training advice, video analysis and other help he provides has made a massive impact on her career.
"When I first chatted with him, he even offered to talk to me about coaching options with different people but I liked what he was about and the vibe I got from him," Gentle said. "He was down to earth, easy to talk to. In an athlete-coach relationship, it's helpful to have good communication and a good relationship before you ever get into the coaching side of it.
"It may seem strange that we're on opposite sides of the globe, but it has really worked for me. Since I've been coached by Cliff, I've gotten some of my best results. Obviously, something is working with us."
Gentle believes English's approach will translate well with student-athletes.
"He pushes me to great lengths, but it's always very controlled. That's important with young and junior athletes," she said. "I was fortunate when I was quite young to have a coach like Cliff who wasn't too pushy, who understood my limits. Cliff will be great to really nurture young talent in a good way so they can enjoy a long triathlon career, if that's what they choose to do."
English joked this week that had he been less of a go getter, he might have pushed for Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson to launch triathlon in 2017, instead of the fall of 2016 with the Olympics just around the corner.
"I'm incredibly busy," said English, who will be in Rio for five days, "but it's incredibly exciting to look forward to starting a program.
"I've coached athletes in the past at this [college] age. Even when they're 17, 18 or a transfer at 19, most of them started in their mid-teens, so it gives me that opportunity to get them at the beginning of their development curve. They are a little more impressionable and malleable. There's a lot of raw material there, especially with freshmen that have only done one or two years of triathlon.
"You can really instill some values and when you look at the core values of ASU, integrity is one of them. It's about being the best in anything you do but you also always have to compete with integrity.
"We've got our work set out for us, no question, but it's also a clean canvas so it's exciting."
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Cliff English has identified his greatest challenge as the coach of the Sun Devils fledgling women's triathlon team: He has forgotten how to sell himself.
English coached at the Canadian national training center in Victoria from 2002-05, and from 2005 to 2008, he coached the USA National Team.
He has coached a star-studded cast of triathletes including four-time U.S. Olympian Hunter Kemper, Leanda Cave, Sarah Haskins, Heather Jackson and T.J. Tollakson. He coached World Championship medalists Samantha McGlone and Tim O'Donnell, and he has coached athletes in four-straight Olympiads including Australian Ashleigh Gentle, who is currently working with English in Tempe before she heads off to Rio in August.
The problem?
"I've never gone up to an athlete after a race and said 'how would you like to come work with me?'" English said. "They typically come to me. I guess it's just reputation, but I haven't put out an ad in a long time."
While English worries that this lack of self-promotion will impact him on the college recruiting trail, Gentle laughs at the idea that English needs to peddle himself to anyone.
"He has so much experience in triathlon in general, but the experience he has is very broad," she said. "Everyone knows who he is so that experience can only be a really positive thing for the program."
Gentle called English about two years ago, after parting with her former coach. She wasn't seeing the consistency she wanted in her competitions, and she wasn't seeing enough improvement.
Despite the fact that she lives on Australia's Gold Coast and only sees English one or two times a year, she said the training advice, video analysis and other help he provides has made a massive impact on her career.
"When I first chatted with him, he even offered to talk to me about coaching options with different people but I liked what he was about and the vibe I got from him," Gentle said. "He was down to earth, easy to talk to. In an athlete-coach relationship, it's helpful to have good communication and a good relationship before you ever get into the coaching side of it.
"It may seem strange that we're on opposite sides of the globe, but it has really worked for me. Since I've been coached by Cliff, I've gotten some of my best results. Obviously, something is working with us."
Gentle believes English's approach will translate well with student-athletes.
"He pushes me to great lengths, but it's always very controlled. That's important with young and junior athletes," she said. "I was fortunate when I was quite young to have a coach like Cliff who wasn't too pushy, who understood my limits. Cliff will be great to really nurture young talent in a good way so they can enjoy a long triathlon career, if that's what they choose to do."
English joked this week that had he been less of a go getter, he might have pushed for Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson to launch triathlon in 2017, instead of the fall of 2016 with the Olympics just around the corner.
"I'm incredibly busy," said English, who will be in Rio for five days, "but it's incredibly exciting to look forward to starting a program.
"I've coached athletes in the past at this [college] age. Even when they're 17, 18 or a transfer at 19, most of them started in their mid-teens, so it gives me that opportunity to get them at the beginning of their development curve. They are a little more impressionable and malleable. There's a lot of raw material there, especially with freshmen that have only done one or two years of triathlon.
"You can really instill some values and when you look at the core values of ASU, integrity is one of them. It's about being the best in anything you do but you also always have to compete with integrity.
"We've got our work set out for us, no question, but it's also a clean canvas so it's exciting."